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VOA news.
U.S. sanctions against Iran have now gone into effect. They target automobiles, trade in gold and other precious metals and the Iranian currency, the rial. VOA White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more. The Trump administration is betting the sanction will lead to a better nuclear deal than the one achieved in 2015 under former President Barack Obama. At a recent rally in Missouri, President Trump said that he is open to new negotiations. "We're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the notion in a televised speech Monday. "What's the meaning of negotiations when you impose sanctions at the same time? It's like someone pulling a knife to stab a rival or an enemy in the arm while at the same time claiming we should be talking and negotiating." Patsy Widakuswara, VOA news, Washington. In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump wrote "The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!" Mr. Trump's tariffs against China are causing a maker of television sets in South Carolina to lay off nearly all of its employees because of the sudden increase in the price of Chinese components for its products. The Element TV Company will let 126 workers go, most of them on October 5, leaving behind a crew of just eight employees to watch the factory in hopes it can reopen in three to six months. The Trump administration imposed a 25 percent import tax in July that included Chinese components for televisions and video equipment. This is VOA news. President Trump's national security adviser John Bolton accused North Korea Tuesday of failing to move ahead with denuclearization that was promised by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un at his summit in Singapore in June with Mr. Trump. Bolton told Fox News "What we really need is not more rhetoric. What we need is performance from North Korea on denuclearization." Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Zimbabwean security forces and unidentified gunmen have beaten and harassed dozens of people in a crackdown on the political opposition. Zimbabwe's main opposition party says it will challenge the official result showing that President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the July 30 election. Correspondent Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare. According to official figures, Mnangagwa garnered 50.8 percent of the vote beating MDC candidate Nelson Chamisa's 44 percent. But Chamisa says he actually won 56 percent of the vote. Last week, opposition protests in Harare denouncing the Electoral Commission resulted in six deaths, several injuries and 27 arrests. Columbus Mavhunga, for VOA news, Harare. Congo's Health Ministry says three more cases of Ebola have been confirmed in North Kivu province. The World Health Organization puts the number of confirmed and probable cases of Ebola at 43, including 34 deaths. It says vaccinations are expected to begin this week perhaps as early as Wednesday. Correspondent Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from WHO headquarters in Geneva. The WHO says the same expert team that led the vaccination program during a recent Ebola outbreak in Congo's Equateur province will be deployed to the cities of Beni and Mangina in North Kivu province, where Ebola was detected last week. It says vaccinations in North Kivu will follow the same ring vaccination method. That means people most at risk of infection, such as health workers and first responders, will be vaccinated first. They will be followed by family members, neighbors and other people identified as having come in contact with Ebola victims. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. A federal judge in the United States has sentenced Adam Purinton of the U.S. state of Kansas to life in prison without parole for the racially motivated killing of an Indian national at a bar in February 2017. You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Christopher Cruise, VOA news. |